The invention refers to an apparatus for the formation of stacks of folded, zigzaggedly intermeshed tissues, sheets or the like of fibrous materials. In the following, for simplicity's sake, reference will be made solely to tissues, which can consist of fibrous materials of any type such as cellulose, natural and/or synthetic staple fibers or mixtures of these fibers or the like, including all sheet-like cuttings. In particular, cellulose or such tissues for hygienic or cosmetic and similar purposes can be considered. With the apparatus the individual tissues are intermeshed such that part of one tissue is covered by part of the immediately following tissue.
Two fibrous material webs are fed to this apparatus, each one of which has an associated cutting device for transversely cutting the webs into individual tissues in staggered relation to one another. The cutting device is equipped with folding devices for folding the separated tissues along a transverse line, a shaft receiving the tissue stack, and associated with the shaft a device for depositing and holding down the respective uppermost tissue in the formation of the stack.
An apparatus of this type has already been made known in the U.S. Letters Pat. No. 2,761,676. in this apparatus, the device for depositing and holding down the respective uppermost tissue of the stack consists of comb-like depositors with depositing fingers for taking the individual tissues from the rollers delivering the same and pressing them onto the stack, and of comb-like holding down means with holding fingers for lying across the stack in the tissue stack shaft upon the deposition of each uppermost tissue to securely hold the stack, which is under a certain amount of tension in the shaft, and to prevent upward movements of the same after each tissue is deposited.
The aforementioned mechanism has a complex and intricate construction. Both the depositing fingers and the holding fingers of the holding down means, which reach between the depositing fingers, must work in tact with the machine. In particular, this means that they must become active in every work cycle, i.e. with each deposition of a tissue. To ensure an orderly deposition of the folded tissues and an accurate stack formation, the working speed of the apparatus is limited, particularly since significantly heavy masses must be relatively quickly moved, especially accelerated, and slowed down, resulting in undesirable vibrations if the apparatus is run too rapidly.